This invention relates to exercise apparatus.
Recent studies have shown that the body has a weight set point which makes it extremely difficult to lose weight and keep it off. It is believed that the only way to accomplish this is to reduce calories 15% below what would normally be required to maintain the desired weight, or to increase physical activity. Most persons attempt to increase activity rather than decrease caloric intake or attempt some combination of the two. However, modern living has made it more and more difficult for persons to obtain adequate levels of physical activity. With leisure time being limited, it becomes difficult or impossible for most persons to utilize gymnasium facilities.
As a result of the realization of the need for and increasing interest in exercise, a wide variety of exercise machines have been developed for commercial and home use with a goal to efficiently use all available exercise time. Among the various exercise devices are a number of different general types or classes of equipment that have been designed in order to respond to the variety of different exercise needs, differences in the personnel using the equipment, and different theories as to exercising techniques themselves. One such general type of exercise apparatus incorporates some weight or force generating elements rather than requiring separate free weights to be used with the device. Typically, such exercise machine-type apparatus incorporate a floor standing frame on which levers, cables, springs, or the like are mounted and which are coupled to weight elements, springs, hydraulic cylinders and the like, in order to resist movement. Handles, pads, foot straps and the like are secured to the lever or cable so that the user may, for example, grasp the handle and push the lever against the resisting force. Such machine-type exercise equipment had been developed from various different exercises and therefore this type of equipment incorporates benches, seats, platforms, and the like on which the user sits, lies or stands during use depending on the particular exercise to be performed.
Although exercise equipment such as free-weight devices or exercise machine-type apparatus are generally effective for providing the intended exercise, these pieces of equipment are normally relative large, space-consuming apparatus that are both expensive and unsightly. Heretofore, such exercise machines have typically been used in gyms or kept by a private owner in a separate exercise area because of the unsightly appearance of such equipment and because of its sole function as a piece of exercising equipment. Because the exercising equipment is kept in a separate room, a user is to some degree precluded from performing other activities unrelated to exercising while using the exercise equipment. While using the equipment, the user is isolated from other persons not exercising and is also removed from normal living and work areas where the user could contemporaneously perform other activities such as watch television, read a book, work on a computer, revise a paper, or the like.
Another problem associated with prior exercise machines is the relative expense, particularly in view of the limited amount of time that any given individual uses such a piece of equipment. For this reason, many individuals prefer to join commercial athletic or health clubs having a number of such exercise machines, rather than attempting to purchase these bulky and expensive pieces of equipment themselves. Thus, the usual exercise time is limited to less than one hour, and in the case of many office workers, the exercise time is gained only at the sacrifice of lunch time. For such a short exercise time to have any appreciable impact, high levels of force and long distance must be exerted. These high levels of force or distance become tiring and usually lead to abandonment of any regular routine. Therefore, the constraints of modern work schedules necessitate the utilization of any available time for exercise to reduce levels of force and distance.
An office worker often has short periods of time in which to perform exercises, such as when talking on a speaker phone and waiting for a called party to come to the phone. It would be desirable if office workers could perform exercises during these brief periods of time while seated in an office chair. It would be further desirable if office workers could continue exercising during typical office tasks such as working on the computer, opening mail, revising papers, or the like. However, in order for such office exercise apparatus to gain acceptance, it must not interfere with the comfortable seating of office workers at a desk and movement in a desk area by swiveling in a seat or moving a chair on a desk pad. Further, the apparatus must be usable under a desk or computer table to allow continuous exercising throughout the workday. Though the art has provided apparatus having some degree of functionality, these devices require the legs to be extended horizontally, and thus, they cannot be used under desks because the toes hit the bottom of the desk before full extension or the feet contact the back of the desk before full extension.
Thus, utilizing the free time available in the office or home for exercise and continuing to exercise during certain office tasks is desirable to enhance the health and morale at and away from the office. Increases in the health and morale of the office workers translate into many intangible benefits including happier more productive office workers.